The Choices We Make
by onethingillread
Summary: It has not been too long after the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior have defeated Lord Shen. But since his demise, someone else is plotting horrific revenge on his fallen friend. This new foes actions may very well scar the Jade Palace residents for the rest of their lives.
1. Prologue

The Choices We Make

Prologue

It had been just over four months since Lord Shen was defeated at Gong Men City, and in those few months so much has changed. Everyone was getting better at kung fu, everyone was happier, and everyone was growing closer together. Among those that have changed, none changed more than Po and Tigress. Po considered her to be one of his best friends, as did Tigress to Po. Before the friendly panda came along and defeated Tai Lung, Tigress only saw him a disgrace to the kung fu masters, and kung fu itself. But now…now Tigress had opened up more to the panda, and they slowly but surely became closer and closer friends. And that panda had helped her become more of a person. She now talked more around the palace, and actually smiled every once in a while. And every once in a _great_ while, the residents of the palace would get to hear the rare sound of her laughter. It wasn't loud, but it was there. She also became more social with just about everyone, especially Po. Tigress didn't know why, but she always enjoyed being around the Dragon Warrior. When she was near him she felt, warm, wanted, and loved. And when she witnessed Po get blasted by one of Shens cannons, Tigress didn't know what to do, what to think, or what to say. When they were chained together at Gong Men City, all she could think about was Po, and how she never got to tell him how she felt. As Tigress watched the return of Po on top of the tall building, the feline was overcome with joy. Though she couldn't make out Po's words, she heard them as words of comfort, words of their savior. At that moment Tigress swore to herself that if, no, _when_ they got out of this fight, she would tell Po how she felt. But she could never muster up the courage necessary to confront the panda.

Little did she know that Po almost felt the exact same way about her. Po enjoyed and cherished every moment he spent with his favorite kung fu master. He enjoyed every time they had a conversation, every time they looked at each other, every time they trained together, and even every time she beat him in a sparring battle. He wished that he could find the courage to tell her how he felt. But Po had long ago learned from his dad that there was always a time and a place for everything. He had not yet found the time, or the place. But either way, the panda loved the tiger that he held so close to his heart, secretly of course. Ever since the moment he spent his first night in the Jade Palace Po had always wanted to get to know Tigress better. Even though the feline had treated him terribly until the defeat of Tai Lung, the panda never gave up on his objective. Whenever possible, Po would find his chance to start a conversation with the majestic tiger, or even just catch a short glance at her. In the time between Tai Lung's defeat and the beginning of their journey towards the defeat Lord Shen, they had grown a bit closer together. But that all changed on the day when Po had actually defeated Shen. The day they hugged each other. When Tigress first hugged Po, and when Po first hugged Tigress. He wasn't even sure if Tigress, the most hardcore person he knew, had ever even hugged anyone before. Yet alone have anyone truly hug her… ever. Although Po was almost sure that Tigress had never been hugged before, just based on looking at her expression after Po embraced her in his large, fury arms. Ever since then Po had tried and tried again to get more personal information out of her. One of the most recent arguments had been about what Tigress's favorite color was. He had been trying to find out what her favorite color was for almost three weeks now, but without any luck.

Anyway, Po and Tigress are not the only one that has drastically changed over the past couple of months. Their very own kung fu master and teacher had also changed in personality. If fact, he started to change ever since the one he used to call "the fat panda" fell before his students feet. At first, Shifu absolutely _hated_ the panda, and had tried to force him out of the palace. Then came the day when Po had defeated the Master of the Thousand Scrolls. Shifu was saddened at the thought of his first adapted child being incinerated by the Wu Shi Finger Hold, but he knew it was a necessary loss. After that chain of events Master Shifu found inner peace, something he had wanted to withhold for a very long time. Finding inner peace caused the old master to ease up a little on the students, and every once in a while he would actually smile in front of his students. And after Po's victory with Lord Shen it had made him even happier inside, and for a few reasons. First, and most obvious, Po had found inner peace and used it to defeat Shens army by using his own weapons against him. The panda had also defeated his toughest adversary yet, once again proving that he was the Dragon Warrior, and that he was getting stronger. And the second reason was because of his daughter. Shifu had always hoped that Tigress would open up a bit more, become more social and friendly. He had wished for that to happen for a very long time. That all changed when Po showed up at the jade palace. Tigress had hated the panda just as much as Shifu did, but after the defeat of Shen Shifu knew that his wishes would slowly but surely become true. He knew this the second Po hugged Tigress and she didn't _kill_ him, or even get mad. The old master was thankful for what Po had done with him and his daughter. Everyone definitely enjoyed the pandas company. No. _The_ panda. The lovable, friendly, encouraging panda. The panda that was always there in their time of need. The panda that will always be their friend, no matter what happens. The panda that fell from the sky in a ball of fire and was proclaimed the Dragon Warrior.

Po Ping


	2. Chapter 1: An Average Day

The Choices We Make

Chapter 1: An Average Day

Tigress found herself in the Jade Palace courtyard performing some tai chi to blow off some steam. This was the third time Po had beaten her in a sparring match over the past couple of months. She couldn't figure out if the panda was just getting stronger, or if the master of tiger style was losing her touch. Maybe it was a bit of both. After all, Po was the Dragon Warrior. But either way, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had become rather distracted lately, the feline was almost sure that was why she had lost the sparring match. Then as if on cue, Tigress fell over as she was performing one of her tai chi stances. She had been so caught up with her thoughts that she didn't realize that she had begun to lose her balance as she was being held up by only one leg. Tigress then proceeded to topple over while trying to regain her balance. As she stood back up and brushed her self off she cursed to herself for being so clumsy, and so distracted. But what was she so distracted by? Or by whom? Could it be Po? Tigress had absolutely no idea, she strained herself way too much over this idea.

It is true that she admired Po, but it was actually enough to distract her from the only thing that she had truly known for her entire life? Tigress had never dealt with some of these emotions before, some of them that is. But she thought that it would all sort it self out eventually, for the most part anyway. For one of the emotions was anger, she had definitely experienced this before. And that was rather hard for her to control. But this time was different, instead of being mad at someone else… she was mad at herself. Tigress was mad at herself because of her failure. She had been mad at herself before, but not like this. Though she was mad at herself, she was also happy, if only a little. Tigress was angry since she had allowed herself to be beaten in a sparring match a few times. But she was happy because she got to spend time to spend with her training partner, Po.

The feline enjoyed the sparring matches with Po, even if she lost a couple of times. She enjoyed the matches because they were a challenge, mainly because of the pandas… unique fighting style. Tigress's fighting style was all about offense. Which would constantly consist of furious and powerful kicks, jabs, punches and so on. One of her major faults was her lack of defense. Shifu had always tried to teach her the perfect balance the two, but it was nearly impossible considering she was the master of tiger style. Which appeared to be the complete opposite of Po's style. The lonely panda never had a parent or teacher to learn from before Shifu. And as far as Po knew he was the last of his kind because of Shen, so nobody could pass down the traditional panda style. Po had to create his own kind of fighting style, so that meant it reflected off his personality. Kind, caring, and never wanting to actually hurt anyone. Those are some of the many traits that Tigress liked about the panda, he is such a good person.

But that was beside the point. The main point here was Po's fighting style. The style Po developed was nearly complete defense, which was one of the only styles that would almost flawlessly counter Tigress's fighting style. If she would throw a punch, the panda would sometimes counter it. It she gave a kick towards the pandas stomach, he would sometimes manage to deflect it, which was sometimes more than the rest of the five had ever managed. Whichever way, Tigress saw this as more of a challenge. With a sparring partner completely focused on defense, not only did it prove harder to win the matches, but it was also an excellent way to strengthen her fighting skills. But ever so often Po would actually attack, catching Tigress off guard. This is exactly what happened today…kind of. She slipped up and was too focused on landing an attack on Po that she sacrificed what little defense she had left.

Tigress's hands balled up into fists out of anger during mid stance as she recalled the events that took place only an hour ago.

The feline swung her leg around executing a perfect round house kick, only to have it bounce off Po's wrist. Tigress then preformed a step jump off of the pandas head, which he _definitely_ did not expect. But this allowed his opponent to land about ten feet back and land on all fours. This _also_ allowed Tigress to get some distance between her and her opponent before the kung fu master preformed one of the most fearsome moves in her arsenal. The panda and the tiger stared deep into each others eyes for a brief moment, but only for a moment. The two warriors took their stances and glanced over at their audience of four, all mouths gaping. This had been one of the better battles between Po and Tigress that the other four had the pleasure of seeing, and by looking at the stance of the feline, they all knew what was coming, even Po.

Tigress got a very fast four foot running start before leaping into the air. Then mid flight she faced the palms of her hands towards her opponent, but little did she know that Po expected this. After what seemed like hours of deflecting her attacks, the panda knew she was becoming anxious. He knew Tigress would use her deadly palm strike after becoming aggravated with her sparring partner. And Po was ready.

When her hands were a good foot away from his head the Dragon Warrior sidestepped the attack. He then grabbed hold of her wrists and swung her through the air in an arch like motion, slamming her into the flour boards of the training hall. This move caused Tigress to become too disoriented to stand back up in time to get back at the panda.

Po had already walked up to the dazed and confused tiger. "Give up?" Po positioned his hands behind his back and bent over his sparring partner with a smirk on his face.

"Never," she quickly spat the word out of her mouth in frustration. They were also the only ones she could manage to speak in her condition.

Po faced away from Tigress and spoke in a low sarcastic tone. "Well it looks like you leave me no other choice then,"

Tigress had grown a bit more aware of the situation, though she still felt like she was seeing doubles. "No! Po don't y-" Her words have been cut off by the panda. She almost managed to get back on her feet. Then, with Po being Po, sat on her back. She would plot her revenge later, right now she just wanted him to get off of her back. But in the position she was in, and after being tired out after the sparring match, she just couldn't. It was impossible.

Tigress attempted to speak, but it was proven difficult with her face being pressed against the floor. "Get off of me!" was all she could manage, but it was in vein since it couldn't be heard over the laughter of their audience.

"I will let you go if you answer me one question," Po's smile grew wider as he stared down at his now smashed and _extremely_ mad opponent. Po had her now. "What's your favorite color?"

Tigress mustered up what strength she had left to reply to his stupid question. "I don't have one!" Though it once again was barely audible not only because of the laughter, but her face was pressed tight against the floor while her upper back was being forced to bear the weight of the panda. Now she really wanted him off her back, literally and metaphorically.

Po only looked at her in disbelief. "But everyone has a favorite color, you have to have one!"

"PO!" The now extremely aggravated feline slammed her fist down on the floor, causing small bits of wood to go flying through the air.

"Fine…" Po got off of Tigress's back and allowed her to get up. He then proceeded to point a finger at the tiger, who was now fixing her fur and vest. "No matter what it takes, I will find out"

Tigress only managed a menacing glare back at her adversary, and then her facial expression softened a little. She just couldn't stay too mad at Po, even though she was still quite furious. "I will be in the courtyard until further notice. Please do not disturb me until we are eating, or something happens of greater importance." Tigress turned to her sparring partner. She then put her fist in her other palm and gave a bow, as did Po. "Thank you for the… unique sparring match, Dragon Warrior." No matter how nice she tried to sound she still sounded ticked.

The panda still had a small smile on his face. "Anytime Tigress." He then watched her leave the training hall, hands behind her back with her tail dragging across the floor. Po could tell that she was trying her best to hide her anger, but he knew how mad she was. The match victor turned around to face the rest of the Furious Five. He waited for their laughter to die down before speaking. "Getting better don't ya think?" Po flexed his muscles, only to bring more smiles from the spectators.

Crane was the first one to recover from his laughter. "I'll say, that's the third time you've beaten Tigress in a sparring match."

Viper was next to recover. "Yes Po, you are improving. And at a very fast rate too!"

"Aw, you guys are just saying that to make me feel good," Po replied.

Then Monkey, "No were serious Po, you actually beat Tigress more than once! That's more than any of us can say."

"Wait, I beat Tigress more times than you guys?" Po had an amazed look on his face.

And finally, Mantis. "Holy crap! I thought I was going to die from laughing to hard! That was hilarious, I have never seen anything like that happen to her before. I mean, you _sat _on the master of the tiger style!" He then proceeded to wipe a tear from his eye. "Classic."

Viper slithered over to the insect and rose as high as her body would allow her to, for the intimidation factor of course. "Don't be to hard on her, she must be extremely embarrassed." Viper scolded Mantis, causing him to feel bad.

Po spoke up, "Did I go too far?"

Crane smiled as he recalled the image in his head, the hysterical image. Then he replied, "Maybe a little."

Monkey but into the conversation, "Ya but she deserved it." That statement turned some heads. "After all, she didn't tell you her favorite color!" He then broke out into laughter again.

"Yea Po, you should of asked her a better question," Viper chimed in. "You should of asked her to dance with you at the Summer Festival!"

"Now that would be going too far," Mantis remarked.

"I'm pretty sure that Tigress wouldn't want to dance with me"

"Hey, you don't know that. There's no need talk so bad about yourself. To be honest, nobody really knows what goes on in her head."

Po liked the way the snake always found words of comfort to share with her friends. "Viper you don't ha-"

The five warriors heard the small creaking noise of the training hall doors, everyone knew that it wasn't Tigress, so that must mean…"Master Shifu," His students all bowed in respect towards their master, but Monkey still had a small smirk on his face.

Then Shifu did the same but without the smiling. He then turned to look at Po. "Dragon Warrior."

"Yes master?"

"The time has come to start your next phase of training. Meet me at the Pool of Sacred Tears at sundown, and try not to be too late." The old master turned around and headed back out the oversized and creaky doors.

Po waited until Shifu was out of earshot to express his excitement to the others. "What to you think the new training will be about?"

Crane was the first to reply to the enthusiastic panda. "I don't know, but it has to be pretty amazing if it's anywhere near as cool as the inner peace technique."

Mantis Jumped up on Monkeys shoulder to get closer to everyone else's eye level before speaking. "Ya, it better be. Anything that allows you to deflect explosives with your hands is freaking awesome!"

"You saved all of China in a matter of minutes Po! You stopped what could of been an all out war by using your inner peace," Everyone got a small laugh or smile from Monkey's ironic comment.

This was one of those times when either Cranes, Tigress's, or in this case Vipers intellect seemed to put them above the other students. "Ya but you just acquired inner peace, most kung fu masters don't even have that yet. If you're learning this after you learned inner peace, what will this next phase of training have to offer that can build off of such a powerful technique? Po, chances are this won't be your normal training session."

Po's eyes widened in realization, "You're right, what could it be?"

Mantis pointed one of his pincers towards the now lowering sun. "Maybe it's a technique that will help you tell time better, it takes you about fifty minutes to make dinner right?"

Now it was Cranes turn to scold the insect, "You don't always have to think about food you know, yet alone insult your friend."

"I don't mind, just forget about it. Anyways, I probably should get dinner ready. I bet you guys are hungry after a full day of training."

Monkey spoke up, "Finally. I didn't want to say anything but I was starving."

"Yea, Yea. I get it, I'll go make dinner, you guys just work up an appetite. Po swiveled around on his foot and headed to the kitchen as the remaining four continued their training.

In what seemed to be no time at all to Po, dinner was ready to be served. The chef walked into the training hall to get his friends for dinner. "Hey guys, get it when it's hot!" As he watched the masters run past him to get their long awaited food he realized that he forgot to put out chopsticks and cloth for them. He caught Crane by the wing. "Hey can you set the table while I go get Tigress? I kind of forgot." Crane nodded to his friend and walked in the opposite direction of the Dragon Warrior and towards the kitchen.

Po expected Tigress to still be in the Jade Palace courtyard. He fast walked to the front of the palace in hopes of getting her before the others started eating. When he finally reached the doors to the palace courtyard he silently pulled them open to reveal the tiger style master. Po just couldn't help but not admire the beautiful feline that he held so close to his heart… secretly, of course.

Her slim, muscular body that was perfected by years of kung fu training. Her slow graceful movements as she preformed her tai chi. The way her fur glistened off the sunset. And her eyes, one of the things that Po truly enjoyed the most about her. The golden orbs that Po sometimes had the privilege of starring at during the day, and occasionally received the gift of watching them illuminate under the moon. If the panda could describe her in just a few words, it would be…beautiful, majestic, friendly (sometimes), and just pure awesomeness. She was Tigress.

Then the pandas attention appeared to be drawn to something else. It then dawned on Po. The sunset. 'Sundown!' Po thought. He left the door for the courtyard and ran to the back door of the Jade Palace, letting the courtyard door creak to a shut position. Little did he know that only moments after he left, Tigress stumbled during her stance and fell flat on her back. She was lucky that Po didn't see her, Tigress would have been even _more_ embarrassed.

Meanwhile, Po ran as fast as he could for the Pool of Sacred Tears. He forgot about his friends, the meal he cooked, and even Tigress. He just didn't want to be late to meet with Shifu.


	3. Chapter 2: The Art Of Healing

(A.N.) I don't believe that I properly addressed some issues in my first chapter, description, or prologue. First off, this is my first fan fiction story, but that does not mean that I don't want you to go easy on the reviews. If you post serious reviews about things I can correct; story line problems, or even spelling errors, it would only help me correct myself. But that also does not mean that you should be cruel in the reviews. Second, as of now I have the rating on this story at T. This is because I may end up including some minor language under intense situations, and the blood I am expecting to put in later in the story. However, the rating may change to M later in the story if there ends up being too much language or too much blood and gore. Third, I know the story will seem slow at first, but you can trust me that the story will have more action in later chapters, but for now there will just be _major drama_, if you will. Please review, I hope you enjoy this work in progress.

Chapter 2: The Art of Healing

After what seemed to be an eternity Po had finally reached his destination of the Pool of Sacred Tears. The hike up the stairs was relentless and unmerciful, than again Po had always hated stairs. But now the panda was curious as to how many stairs were actually there. It was decided, he was going to counting them on the way back down. There was just so many!

When Po reached the top all the panda could do was just sit there and pant for a few minutes while his body recovered from that traumatizing stair case. Not only did the warrior feel like vomiting up his dinner that he never had, but now it had started to rain. It was then that Po looked up from his bent over position that he remembered why he even came up here in the first place. He noticed Master Shifu taking shelter from the rain by sitting in the full lotus position under a large arched-out rock.

Without opening his eyes Shifu patted the ground next to him, gesturing for his student to sit down. No doubt did he hear his student hyperventilating. With no second thoughts Po jogged to his master with anticipation. Not only was he eager to learn more about his next phase of training, but he also strived for getting out of the rain. He walked up next to Shifu and sat down, legs outstretched with his hands in his lap. "Sorry I'm late master, I didn't realize how dark it was getting," Po twiddled his thumbs while sneaking glances at the master, hoping he would not get in too much trouble.

Shifu was still in his meditating position with his eyes closed. "It is okay panda, this is more fun to be taught at night anyway."

Wait, he wasn't in trouble and Shifu was okay with this? And did he just say this was more _fun_ to be taught at night? He never even says the _word_ fun. Something was off, and Po knew it, even though he was drastically confused. He was excited to start this as soon as possible. "Really? Thank you Master." Po stopped messing with his thumbs and directed his attention fully onto his master. "Anyway… so what's on the menu today?"

A smirk grew on the red pandas face, it was small, but it was there. Still in the full lotus position Master Shifu cracked open just one eye to make sure he still had his students attention. "You had to skip your meal, didn't you?"

"Is it that obvious?" Po held an embarrassed expression on his face. It was true that he was hungry, and that he missed dinner, but he also just ran up an unbelievable amount of stairs which only increased his appetite.

Shifu looked at his student and raised his eyebrows, as if to give him a 'do you really think I'm that dumb?' kind of look. "You just asked me about a menu for your training,"

"Ya…that could tip someone off," Now he was really embarrassed.

"No matter, this should not take too long."

"Great, cause I am starv-"

"Po, now is one of those times when you need to be rather silent, which I know can be hard for you at times," He held his finger up to his face, as if motioning to silence him.

The Dragon Warrior could only reply in a quiet tone after being slightly scolded. "Yes master."

The red panda changed his seating position to cross legged, for it would be easier to teach that way."Good, let's begin." Being careful not to say anything, Po nodded with acceptance. "Tonight, you will begin to learn the Jai Chou Healing Technique," The master could barely contain his smile when he witnessed his students eyes grow larger by the second. "But before you learn this, there are some things you will need to know. First off, as the name may tell you this is a healing technique designed by Jai Chou, roughly six hundred years ago. But I will get more into that later. Second, to learn his you must acquire inner peace. Having inner peace will drastically help balance your chi, which is very important to learning the technique. This is why none of the other students have learned this yet. Third, performing this will drain your inner chi depending on how large the wound is. If you drain a large amount of chi healing somebody, you will grow very weak, and possibly feel like passing out. And finally, the recovery time for the person being healed may differ on how dire the wound is. If the wound is too drastic, the Jai Chou Heal will most likely not work. However, under some extremely rare occasions will the victim have the appearance of being dead for a few hours, or even days. This once again depends on the size of the wound. Anyways, the victim's body will seemingly shut down, their heart beat and blood flow will slow giving them the appearance of being dead. But the body only does this to conserve energy while the injury heals to the point where the person has enough strength to get back on their feet. That is what you must know before performing this technique. Any questions?"

Shifu's audience of one just sat in a slouched over position, speechless. But with a confused look on his face. The old master bent forward and put his forehead into his paw. "Po, you can talk."

"Oh, good. I just didn't want to… um," Shifu just gave him a blank stare, he as definitely getting irritated. His student did not feel that getting him angry was the best way to go right now, so he continued his question with haste. "So what's the story behind this Jai Chou guy?"

"Ah yes, I almost forgot." Shifu knew this wasn't that great of a story for somebody who wanted to hear something a happy ending, such as his student. But he only knew what he had been told by Oogway, which unfortunately involved a lot of terrifying details. It was time to begin his story. Po realized that this may take a minute, so he sat cross legged like Shifu, and leaned forward with anticipation. His master glanced at Po to make sure he had his undivided attention before starring off into space. "As I said before, the origin of the Jai Chou Heal began around six hundred years ago. The story quite obviously revolves around Jai Chou, a peaceful fox in his mid twenties that was the height of the Kung Fu status for his era. He had lived in a peaceful community with his family, his wife and his only son, who was only about seven at the time. Then out of nowhere, a small scale war broke out between their village and another. The residents of the once peaceful village and family of three lived out a large number of their days in fear, waiting for disaster. The fighting continued, until it was clear that their army was dwindling in numbers. It was then that the villagers decided to withdraw from their current position and retreat to find a better home… but it was too late. The enemy community had planned a sneak attack during the night as the residents were retreating. They set fire to the houses, smoking out the innocent people and killing them without giving them a chance. Jai Chou's house was in a far corner of the village, which made it less of a priority target for their foe, but it was not discrete enough. As the fox was in the back of his residence rummaging for personal mementoes of his family, unknowingly to him did one of the attackers spot the untouched house."

Master Shifu once again glanced at Po, his eyes were wide with terror. The master expected this though, this was not such a happy story. The old panda sighed and closed his eyes before continuing this tragic story. This next part was going to be hard to talk about, even for a master. "Unknown to Jai, a wolf had kicked his door down only to spot his wife and child. The lupine slashed for his wife first, ripping his sword through her throat. He brought the sword back only to accidently strike Jai's son across his stomach. Over the commotion of the town he only noticed this when he heard the sound of his child's screams. When he ran to the cause of the whaling he was only greeted by his dead wife, and his dying son. The wolf had already run off, preparing to take more innocent lives. Jai Chou held his child in his arms, all he could do was comfort him until the kit closed his eyes for the last time. After that terrible night, he did not swear revenge on the one that killed his family. For he knew that would only cause more violence, which is what started this all. Instead Jai spent years meditating until he found his answer, a way to help people in dire need. To help them, he created the Chou Jai Heal."

Po raised his hand as if he was still in school as to not rudely interrupt his master. "But Shifu, I thought that you needed inner peace to use this technique?" He had a point. "How did he fine inner peace after that wolf killed his family?"

"You found inner peace after you found out Lord Shen had killed almost your entire race, didn't you?" The Dragon Warrior nodded with understanding. "It was very similar to that. Nevertheless Jai invented a technique that was used for treatment on the battlefield by a few Kung Fu masters around the world. The only reason you may not have heard of this is because it has become a lost art. Very little people even know about the Jai Chou Heal, such as my self. Now, shall we begin with the actual lesson?" Shifu looked over at his student with another blank expression while still trying to clear the disturbing images from his head. Po could only stare and nod, he was still dumbstruck about the tale he had just been told. "Good. Panda, give me your arm." Po dared not disobey his master, so he surrendered his arm to his teacher. Only to have Shifu dig his claw into the pandas large arm, this in turn drew a small amount of blood onto his fur. Po opened his mouth to yelp but only to be stopped by his master. "Po, we are Kung Fu warriors, we do not whimper over scratches." He was being scolded again. "For this all you must do is center your inner chi, and lead it through your hand. To learn the rest, all you have to do is watch." The Dragon Warrior nodded with acceptance.

The red panda pulled his student closer and rested his forearm on his lap and circled his fingers around the scratch. He then squeezed them towards the center of the wound, which caused his victim to wince a little. As much as the Dragon Warrior wanted to pull his arm away he didn't wanted to be scolded… _again_. But he never could have guessed what was about to happed next. As his master moved his fingers away from the center of the scratch, Po noticed a faint stream of light blue light blue follow his small claws. No longer wanting to move his arm away, he wanted to see more of this miraculous phenomenon. He leaned in closer to get a better look at the action that was being preformed.

Master Shifu then rotated his hands around the pandas scratch, only to have more of the blue light follow his actions. But the light was getting brighter by the second as he preformed this feat. The old teacher once again squeezed his fingers closer to the center of the wound, but this time the blue light grew even brighter. And before he knew it the streams of light entered the gash, causing it to faintly glow blue for a split second. Then before his eyes, the cut slowly sealed itself and stop what little bleeding there was. As Po stared in astonishment his master, then once again brought his claws away from the scratch. As a result, a stream of dim _green_ light emerged from the gash, only to grow brighter than expected. This illuminated Po's awestruck face as he leaned in even closer. He could only watch in amazement as his master took both hands off the newly healed wound and brushed them against the grass in order to get rid of a small amount of his student's blood. The green strand of light housed itself on the Dragon Warriors arm for a minute or two before fading back into his skin. For a brief moment there was a slight tingling sensation in his arm, but that soon faded with the light.

This was the first time in his life that Po was at a loss for words. "How… what… why…um… th-," He was making a complete fool of himself. He was actually so distracted that he forgot to get his arm back from his master.

The old panda was once again getting irritated by his student. "Use your words Panda!" Po still couldn't figure out the words in his head. "And please, take your arm back." He looked at his dumbstruck student and pushed his arm back to his lap.

"Master, was that the Jai Chou Heal?"

Shifu pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at the ground. "Yes panda, that is why I brought you up here."

"And what were the light things that came out of your fingers?"

Shifu looked back up to his student to answer his questions, as an attempt to not appear too angry. "That was me directing our inner chi to complete the healing process. And it did not come from my fingers, I was just redirecting it with them."

"And the two different colors?"

"The blue light was my inner chi, the green light was yours. I moved my chi into your gash and pushed out some of your in the process. When my chi was used up around the cut, yours was allowed to advance back into your arm. The extra chi allowed the healing process to be sped up for a brief period of time. And in case you were ever wondering, the color of someone's chi is often resembled by ones eyes."

There was a long moment of awkward silence between the two. "That was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!" The sudden comment caught his master off guard, he almost fell over from his seating position.

"Yes panda, it is quite amazing to watch."

"You bet it was!" Everybody loved his inner child, it was just so amusing sometimes.

"Indeed, that is all for tonight panda, the loss of my chi has made me a bit weak. I must rest for a while." This was of course a lie, Shifu just wanted to be left alone for the rest of the night. It was true the loss of chi drained his energy for a bit, but it as nowhere near enough to make him that tired.

He got back in the lotus position and began to meditate. Not expecting anymore words from Po, he was not ready for his next comment. "Master, do you mind if I tell the five? Their extremely curious about what this lesson was for."

Shifu now wore a more relaxed tone on his face. "Of course panda, the only secrets in the Jade Palace are the ones we hold closest to our hearts."

Po was definitely excited to tell his wonderful story to his friends. "Thank you master," he proceeded to stand up and bow towards his teacher. "Good night Master Shifu."

The red panda closed his eyes and tilted his head back up to the stars. "As to you Po."

Po began to run back down the stairs for the Jade Palace kitchen. He was thankful it ha stopped raining a while ago, other wise he probably would have slipped and fallen down _another_ flight of stairs in the Valley of Peace.


	4. Chapter 3: The Letter

Please forgive me for my late update. I got caught up with school work after being sick for four days. But to make up for it, I made this chapter a bit longer than the others. So… ya. By the way, I'm not good with names of people or places, so just go with it (I guess). Enjoy!

Chapter 3: The Letter

Thankfully nobody had seen her. The last time something embarrassing happened to the hardcore Tigress, it was before Po had even joined them in the ranks of the kung fu masters. And the other four hadn't let her forget about for a good month or so. Tigress did not like to slip up..._ever_.

The seemingly clumsy feline stood up and brushed herself off. She brushed her paws down the back of the silk vest in an attempt to get rid of any dirt or dust, as to avoid any questioning from the others. Once the tiger had gotten rid of any and all evidence of her slipup, all she could do was stand there and shake her head in confusion. What was wrong with her? She never made any mistakes like that, never!

The master of tiger style resumed her tai chi stance, and once again began to question herself. 'What is wrong with me? I'm never like this, what is going on with my head? Am I losing my touch? Maybe that's why Po beat me in that sparring match, or could it be something else. Could I just be distracted? If so, then by what? The last big thing that happened to us was the battle with Lord Shen, but that's over with. Maybe it's something that happened during that time period, but what? Apart from Po assumed to be dead, nothing out of the ordinary occurred during that mission. And anything that did happen out of the ordinary had to do with Po…Po.'

Tigress failed to realize how distracted she was becoming yet again. While transitioning her stance the feline managed to step on her own long tail, then a small yelp escaped her lips as the tiger began to stumble _again_. The master fell forward, but she was so caught up in thought that her reflexes were rendered useless since she realized what had happened, after it happened. The feline fell forward and hit her face on the rock that covered the court yard. It hurt, and more than she expected. She lay there in utter defeat and closed her eyes for a second or two. This was the second time that she had lost in the battle against gravity in the past five minutes… fantastic.

The master just lay there for a moment in disgust, and then her golden orbs snapped open. This time, it was decided that the tiger would not stand up. You can't fall if you're already at ground level…right? Ignoring all the filth she had gathered the feline brought her muscular arms out and pushed herself into a meditating position, it was quite obvious that standing was not doing her that well. She went into the full lotus position and put her paws on her now unclean pants. But she did not seem to care that much the second time, Tigress could clean her clothing off later. Right now she was much too interested in finding her source of distraction. The tiger closed her eyes and went into a deep train of thought.

'All right, I seem to have the most trouble concentrating when I think of Po, but nothing else happened between us besides his victory in the sparring match. Nothing else I can think of…' Then a thought hit her in the face as hard as the ground had when she fell. 'The prison! Was that what this was all about? Could just that one hug be enough to do this to me? Perhaps this may have made things just uncomfortable between us and that's all this is. What else…' Then the feline remembered. There was the second hug, the one after that astonishing showdown with Shen. The first time, she hugged Po because she felt sorry for him, he had lost his entire family and was the last of his race because of the wrenched peacock. The second time, when Po hugged her, she had no idea why. She had never been truly speechless or that surprised until that point in time. Nobody had hugged Tigress in almost 20 years, or even shown some kind of affection towards her. So when Tigress felt her friends warm embrace around her body, she had no idea what to think, or even do. Along with the other spectators. She had never been this confused. Not until the Dragon Warrior took up refuge the Jade Palace. 'Am I in this state because of th-'

Her train of thought came to an abrupt stop when she heard frantic flapping behind her. The master stood up and turned around, forgetting of the dirty state she was in. Her keen hearing had picked up on the sound of the wings, but it didn't take her extraordinary vision to see who was rushing closer to her. The golden robe and the amount of feathers that were falling easily indicated who it was. It was Zeng, the palaces messenger goose, and he looked like he had just been run over by a wagon.

"Master Tigress!" The goose landed hard in his side and stood back up on his small legs, struggling to catch his breath.

Tigress was now worried, what on earth could have him so frenzied? She bent down talk to him at eye level. "Yes Zeng, what is it? Are we under attack? Is China being overthrown? What is it?" Her voice was regretfully more demanding than intended to be. She felt like she had scared the bird into talking.

Zeng got his breath back and began to explain with haste, hysterically waving his wings which only caused more feathers to go flying. "The east coast of China, it was attacked by an unknown force four days ago in the middle of the night! Nobody was killed, but many are wounded! It is terrible!"

Tigress jumped up in bewilderment, startling Zeng even more. She then made a fist out of anger. "We have to help, if we can get to the coast we can aid those in need and possibly catch the brute. We have to help them." Her clenched fist loosened and lowered to her side at the thought of helping those in need.

"There is no use Master Tigress, the perpetrator has fled without a trace and all the citizens are being assisted by surrounding cities and villages."

Her eyes could only widen in disbelief. "At least there is some good news, it is good there are some helpful people out there. But why would someone do such a thing, does anyone have any idea as to who this was?"

Zeng was now pacing back and forth. "I am sorry but nobody knows, not even the emperor. There was no clear motive of any kind, but there are only a few it could be."

Tigress spoke in a deep serious tone. "What do you mean?"

Zeng stopped pacing and looked up at the feline, the intelligent tiger knew something was wrong. "You remember Shen, right?"

Tigress understood the serious of the situation and bent back down to eye level with the goose. "How could I forget?"

"The attacker had Shen's cannons, enough to nearly wipe out the east coast!" Solely out of fear, the goose put his wings over his head as to protect him from the cannons that were not there.

Tigress could only stare at Zeng, but her mind was contemplating what she knew. 'The villain had enough cannons to decimate the east coast, but he didn't kill anyone. And it was without warning. If he did not intend to kill anybody, and he did not want to be seen, then they must have attacked to send a message. But to whom?' Another idea wiggled its way into Tigresses mind. 'Who would have the plans to Shen's cannons? It must have been someone close to him from his family, or possibly even a dear friend of his. And it had to be somebody with enough time and money to create an armada of ships. They would also require enough supplies to forge all of the cannons and ammunition, along with the boats.' She was once again so deep in thought that she dismissed the fact that she looked like an idiot. While thinking she involuntarily put one hand on her hip, and the other on her chin with her head tilting down. The master also failed to realize that Zeng was just staring at her wondering weather or not it would be safe to talk to her right now.

He took a step forward and glanced up at the tiger with questioning eyes. "Um, master?"

She realized the goose was still there and took her hands off of her chin and hip before glaring back down at him. "Ah, yes. Forgive me Zeng, I got lost in thought."

The goose looked away and started pacing back and forth again. "It is fine master. But I must leave now, I have family I wish to help on the east coast. Just please inform the rest of the situation, and try make it clear that there is nothing that you can do as of now."

"Yes Zeng, I intend to do so." Her tone changed from rather demanding to sympathetic in a matter of seconds. "You must leave soon though, your family needs you in their time of need."

"Thank you Master Tigress. I must be leaving now." Zeng turned around and outstretched his wings in order to start flying but then he remembered something. He turned back around and produced a rolled up silk parcel from the inside of his robe. "I almost forgot, on my way here I was stopped by a civilian. He asked me to deliver this to the residents of the Jade Palace. Forgive me for where it was, I had nowhere else to put it." He outstretched his arm towards the master in attempt to properly hand her the silk bag.

"There is no need to ask for forgiveness," Tigress bent over and grasped the soft silk in her paw, intent on opening it with the others at dinner. She anticipated it to have something to do with the attack on the east coast. "Is that all Zeng?"

"Yes Master Tigress, now I truly must be leaving," He once again turned around to outspread his wings so he could help those in need.

The tiger bowed in respect for Zeng as she does with her master. "Of course, thank you for the delivery." With that the goose flapped his wings and took off for his family, while loosing a few more feathers in the process. When he was gone Tigress averted her golden eyes back at the parcel. It was just a small, white silk bag with "For the Residents of the Jade Palace" inscribed golden Chinese characters on one side. The sides of the bag included a traditional golden dragon running along the side of the parcel. The bag in self did not appear to hold a box of any sort, but maybe a scroll. It must also be of high importance. Now that the feline got a good look at the bag it seemed to come from royalty, or somebody of a higher arch. This was not _just_ a bag.

Tigress felt a cold drop of liquid hit her head and sink into her thick fur. She looked up to see what it could have been, but only to find dark, menacing clouds floating above her head. 'Great, just great. So much for meditation.' The only reason she had come out here was to think among the peace and quite. And now the master was being forced back inside by Mother Nature. Tigress slipped the parcel under arm to protect it from the rain, and covered the top of her head with the other in order to protect _it _from the rain. She then jogged over to the doors that Po was (unknown to her) staring through earlier.

She opened the doors and noticed two things. The first thing she noticed was how much nicer it was inside the palace. The second thing was that delectable smell that illuminated from what was most likely the kitchen. The tiger walked towards the kitchen out of curiosity, and she hadn't eaten all day. She walked passed the kitchen when she realized nothing was there and continued walking for the dinning room. Tigress was greeted by Crane, Viper, Monkey, and Mantis all eating what something that gave the impression of being one of Po's wonderful soups.

Monkey, who was sitting opposite of the door, was the first to notice the new arrival. "There you are! We thought you wanted to starve yourself or something."

The other three swiveled their heads towards the door, with Viper being next to comment. "Didn't Po tell you that we were eating?"

"No, he didn't. Where is he now?" Tigress walked up to the closer of two remaining chairs and took a seat.

"No idea. We all thought he was with you." Which was a rough translation of what they all heard through Mantis's bad table manners.

Crane put down his chop sticks and finished chewing before glaring at Mantis, hence making a point. "Well he couldn't have gone too far. Just have something to eat while it's still warm."

"I haven't eaten all day, this smells great, and I'm hungry," Tigress stood up and walked over to the counter where the pot was and laid the package down next to it before filling her bowl with soup.

Viper's curiosity got the better of her once again as she pointed the end of her tail at the parcel. "What's that you got there?"

Assuming the snake meant the silk bag, Tigress sat down and began to explain. Zeng delivered it to me while I was out in the court yard. He said a random civilian spotted him on his way to the palace and told him to deliver it to the residents of the Jade Palace. Which reminds me, Zeng also told me of an attack on the east coast of China last night." Her facial expressions and tone of voice grew extensively more serious by the end of her explanation.

The features on Cranes face showed how shocked the avian was. "How large was th-"

Without seeming to apprehend the seriousness of the situation, Monkey snapped his fingers and interrupted Cranes question. "Shifu's training lesson! That's where Po must have gone." His comment only attracted threatening glares from all around the table. Except from Tigress, who just looked confused. The simian looked down at his bowl in embarrassment. "Um…sorry Crane. Please continue."

She then came back to her senses. "What training lesson?"

Viper leaned towards her friend to help her understand… kind of, anyway. "Don't worry, I'm sure Po will tell of us all about it later."

She was still confused. "That sounds like Po." The southern Chinese tiger shook the confused look from her face and answered Cranes question. "I was informed the attack was of a massive scale, and took place around midnight. From what I understand, many people are wounded, but thankfully none have been killed. There is nothing we can do to help as of now, other cities and villages are aiding those in need as we speak."

"What kind of prick would do something like that?" Mantis was leaning so far over his bowl with content that he almost fell into his soup.

"Nobody knows who did this, but it is narrowed down to a certain group of people it could be."

Monkey took this as an opportunity to redeem himself from the rude interruption from earlier. "Well it would have to be somebody that could get the necessary recourses to form an army, and enough people he could rule."

"My thoughts exactly, but there's one other distinguishing fact."

"What would that be?" Crane replied.

"The attacker was in possession of the same type of weapons that Shen had." Tigress leaned forward in her seat, once again taking in the grim truth. These weapons have been proved dangerous to them before, and she didn't want to even _think_ about actually losing any of her friends… again.

Mantis leaned even farther over the bowl, which was thankfully empty. "I thought we dest-" Mantis actually fell into his bowl this time. Normally it would of gathered a few laughs from some of the others, but not in this situation. The insect gathered his thoughts and stood on the side of his bowl before repeating himself. "But I thought all of his weapons were destroyed in the battle with Po? How could there be any more!"

Viper coiled her lower half on the seat of the chair and used her upper half to "stand up" in order to appear as tall as the rest of them, not including Mantis. "The weapons have been destroyed, but whose to say there weren't still schematics of them? With those somebody could just recreate them."

"So the attacker would have to be someone close to Shen, a friend or family member. Or even a spy that may have snuck into his palace and stolen them." The bird was right.

"Once again, exactly what I thought." As she was talking they all heard loud footsteps lumbering down the hallway. Tigress stopped talking and turned to look towards the entrance to the kitchen, as did the rest of the rooms occupants. They all watched as Po rounded the corner and almost lost his footing.

"You guys aren't gonna believe this!"

As Po eventually finished up his story of learning the Jai Chou Healing Technique, which only left his listeners in awe. The enthusiastic pandas presentation involved a large amount of hand motions, and "Po" words such as _awesome_ and _epic_.

Much later, when his speech was done, and any questions were answered, his jade green eyes were diverted towards the large pot of soup he mad earlier. Food was still on his list of priorities. Then as he walked over to the pot he noticed the white and gold parcel on the counter, and the words inscribed on it. 'For the residents of the Jade palace huh?' "What's up with the silk bag?" Po proceeded to take his bowl of soup and take the only available seat next to Tigress.

"Oh, yes. I almost forgot." She reached back and grabbed the package off the counter. The feline placed it on the table before undoing the lace that was keeping the silk closed.

"Well what's in it?" Monkey asked.

Tigress unraveled a scroll that was quite dull compared to the stitching on the silk. "It's a letter," She skipped down to the bottom of the letter to find out who the letter as from, "it says the letter is from Lord Dou Ta (Dow Tay), I have ever herd of him before. Have any of you?" The tiger glanced up from the letter to see what the others had to say. All she got was a chorus of no's. As she prepared to read the letter out loud the rest of them continued to eat their dinner. "Dear Jade Palace residents, I write to you from Mao Den City about a serious matter. I, along with many other people across China have heard of your quarrel with Lord Shen. Shen was once very close to me, but that was a long time ago. He eventually grew into a merciless ruler and tyrant. But I still loved him, as he was family. I swore my vengeance…" The masters' voice grew softer and quieter as she went on with the letter. It did not go unnoticed. Everyone stopped their eating and looked at their friend in confusion. Something was wrong.

Po placed his chopsticks on the table and looked at the feline. "Tigress?" The panda watched as her ember irises grew wider as she seemingly scanned through the letter. Then the tiger held the letter with one paw, and widened the opening of the silk bag with the other. As Po was about to place his Paw in her shoulder she glanced upwards towards her friends, and she dug her claws into the scroll, ripping three holes in its side. The master stood up and ran out of the kitchen.

The rest of the students all shared worried looks, what had her so scared?


	5. Chapter 4: Disturbing the Mind

(A.N.) I just want to say that this chapter was a great challenge to write, so I did my best. Also, I don't have anything indicating that there is a change in the points of view, mainly because I think it makes for a better story. But that's just my opinion, I hope you don't get confused. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Disturbing the Mind

She ran as fast as she could to get away to a place where she can be alone. It was raining outside, so she couldn't go there. So then the only other place that made any sense was her room. But running on all fours just could not seem to get her there fast enough, even with her claws involuntarily unsheathed. For every corner the feline turned she was crashing into things, stumbling, and becoming more and more confused. She finally reached her sleeping quarters, the only place that seemed to appeal to the master at the moment. Tigress stumbled into the room and slid the entrance shut behind her. The tiger walked over to her bed, but she just couldn't make it. The master fell to her knees and inched her way across the floorboards, and leaned her back against the wood frame of the bed. Tigress felt like she was going to be sick, and to top things off her head seemed to be throbbing from disorder. The hardcore Tigress put her head in her paws and shook her skull back and forth, and could only attempt to calm herself… but to no avail.

She could not stop thinking about what she had just found out. So many questions had flooded through her mind so quickly. And the more questions she thought of, the more she thought of the fateful matter at hand. And the more she thought of that, the more questions that filled her head. But one in particular came to thought more than the others. One that just couldn't leave her mind. One that thought mystified her the most. Just that one word…'Why?'

As this question crossed her mind once more, the felines ear twitched. Her sensitive hearing caught the sound of footsteps approaching her room. Loud footsteps that forced the floorboards to creak under the weight. 'But the only person that could be is…' Suddenly the noises stopped right in front of her room. Tigress rose her head from her paws to see who it was… even though she already had a good idea. A large black paw slid the door open as a friendly face emerged from behind the entrance. "Tigress?"

All four of the kung fu masters watched in bewilderment as they witnessed Tigress make a mad dash opening to the kitchen and turn hard to the right, almost losing her balance on the process. Po knew it had something to do with the letter, but the panda could not think of anything that would cause his friend to act like that. He glanced at the letter and noticed the three holes the feline had punctured in the scroll. Now he had a better idea… Po knew the tiger rather well. But whatever it was, something in that letter ended up causing Tigress to feel some kind of strong emotion. That would be the only reason she would ever run off like that. The hardcore master wouldn't wish for any of the other students to see her in whatever state she was in… Po knew something was drastically wrong. He looked up at the rest of the five, his face holding a worried look.

After a short awkward silence, Crane was the first to recover from the state of shock they were in. "I'm not the only one that has no idea what's going on, right?"

After the statement a small voice arose from an empty bowl sitting on the table. "Buddy, I'm as confused as you are."

Monkey was next to speak, "When was the last time she did something like that?"

"What would make her do something like that?" The snake held a look of concern across her face.

"I might know, but lets read the rest of the letter to get all of the details," Po looked back down at the table and rotated the scroll to face him so he could actually read it. The panda then cleared his throat, attempting to look a bit more professional for his out loud reading. Po put down his chop sticks and picked up the letter. "Dear Jade Palace residents, I write to you from Mao Den City about a serious matter. I, along with many other people across China, have heard of your quarrel with Lord Shen. That peacock was once very close to me, but that was a long time ago. He eventually grew into a merciless ruler and tyrant. But I still loved him, as he was family…" Po's voice quieted down into a hushed tone before it became silenced, and continued reading the letter in his head, as had Tigress.

'I swore my vengeance on my nephew as soon as I heard of his death. But, his demise was to be expected by the both of us. Before his battle with the Dragon Warrior he contacted me and told me of this prophecy about a panda, and his defeat. He told me that if he dies, he wants me to take vengeance on the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior. This is what I intend to do. How you may ask? Well let me explain. In Moa Den, we have a coliseum that was once used for battles between citizens for wealth and a better life. But that was long ago, now we mainly use it as a place to hold plays or theatre. But I intend to spring its original intension back to life. I am demanding that all of you will travel to my city, and the unofficial leader of the furious five, Master Tigress as I have been told, shall fight until death while the rest of you can only watch helpless in chains. Make no mistake, this is not a joke, and will _not_ be taken lightly. If you require proof that I am serious, I am the one that attacked the east coast with the cannons that Shen helped me create with his schematics. If you do not arrive at my city in five days time, on the twenty-first of June, I will rage war on China. But this time, I'm going to aim to kill. Make no mistake, I am not a force to be reckoned with. If you require any more proof of the situation, look inside the bag. There you will find all that you need. Sincerely, Lord Dou Ta'

Before the panda could fully sink in what he just read, he impulsively put down the letter and picked up the silk bag. He shook the bag upside down above his paw, waiting for something to fall into his grasp. Then, it happened. As he shook the silk, a small pointed object fell into his hand, thankfully hilt first. The panda placed the silk back on the table and held the silver dagger in his hand. Po could only gaze at the weapon in wonder. What was it? He tried his hardest to remember what it was from, and then it hit him. His jade orbs widened with dread. _It was one of Shen's daggers._ He reached up and touched the scar that this weapon left under his eye. Then Po glanced up at his friends in horror. Everyone else had confusion and terrified written all over their facial features. The panda glanced back at the letter and then realized what he had to do. He had to find Tigress.

Now all that the others saw was _Po_ run for the exit and turn the same direction that the other master did. And unknown to him, he had the exact same reaction as the feline. From the quieting voice, to the widening eyes. A voice yet again spoke from the empty bowl. "Well is anyone going to finish reading this damn letter or what?"

"There's no need to use fowl language Mantis," Crane replied.

Monkey was quick to aid the insect. "So he said a bad word, who cares?"

"Just stop arguing already! We need to focus in the matter at hand."

"Viper's right, lets just see what the scroll says." Everyone knew Crane was right, but there was a problem.

"But this time lets just put the apparently cursed thing in the middle of the table, and we can all read it to our selves. Sounds good?" Viper nodded and put the end of her tail into one of the holes that was made by Tigress in order to place it more towards the center of the table. "Just give me a second, I gotta get out of this bowl."

The remaining occupants of the table huddled around the letter and began reading it to them selves. After a minute or so Crane was the first to finish and soak up all this information. The avian glanced back at the dagger that was left behind by Po and realized what it was. His head snapped back to his friends. His tone sounded alerted and scarred… but he had a right to act this way. "Does anyone know where Shifu is!"

Po ran as fast as he ever had in his life to find his friend. Although it was easy to find her by following the claw marks left behind in the floorboards. Even they were not there, it would be easy to figure out where she had gone. It was raining outside so she wouldn't be out there, so the only other private place for her that she could think of would be her room. Which is where he was heading.

After a few long stretches of hallway Po finally reached their dormitories. The panda stopped in front of Tigress's door to catch a quick breath. When he was sure he was ready, Po started to slide open the felines door, only to reveal his petrified friend… just gazing up at him. "Tigress?" No response came from the darkness of the room. "Tigress I read the letter… I know what's going on. You need someone to talk to." Still no response, the master just went back to resting her skull in her hands. "Would you mind if I came in Tigress?"

At that question the feline slowly raised her head to look at her comrade. Her voice showed deep sadness to the Dragon Warrior. "N-no… please enter." She pulled her legs up into the lotus position and rested her hands on her lap, trying her best to remain professional. But she still slouched her head.

Po saw this and quietly slid open the door to enter. Once he was fully in the panda closed the door as silently as possible. He knew this conversation would be rather private, even though the paper thin walls did not help the situation. He then walked up to about two feet away from the tiger and sat cross legged on the floor. "Tigress, I read that letter, and I just want to tell you… we're going to make it through this."

"Easy for any of you to say. You aren't the ones who just read your own death sentence in front of your peers."

"Ya but nobody heard you, half way through the letter you rather understandably ended up reading it to yourself."

Tigress tilted up her head to meet her friend face to face. Po took notice of the way she looked, it was an expression of deep sadness and fear, but for once no anger. "That doesn't matter Po! They still saw the expression on my face… and the way I ran. I am no more than a coward." She again bent her head downwards in shame and in embarrassment.

The caring panda leaned forward and placed his paw on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "Tigress, I have never seen you run away from anything in your life… ever. You are _the_ Master Tigress, the conqueror of fear! The withholder of the highest honor!" That made her feel a little better, but just a little. "If you turn away from one thing in your life, that does not make you a coward." He lifted his paw off of the felines shoulder, and gave a small comforting smile.

The tiger glanced back up at Po and opened her mouth as if she was about to say something. But the next moment it closed shut, and she swung her head down towards the floor. There was a long awkward pause before the silence was broken.

"Nobody but you knows what you are feeling right now, and that makes me think that you need somebody to talk to, a friend." The panda looked at her and gave a small smile, trying to make her feel better. It had no effect.

"Po… I don't even know what I am thinking right now." Her voice became hushed and depressed. "All I know is that I'm a dead cat walking."

He leaned forward and spoke with a serious but yet meaningful tone, "Don't you _ever _talk like that. Do you hear me?"

The tiger looked up and starred straight at Po with a now rising temper. "If I don't do this, that criminal is going to go to war with China! So many innocent civilians will have lost their lives all because of me!" Her voice only rose out of anger. "Po, when I ask you this question, I mean it." She took a second to gather the mental courage to ask the question. "Po… what is a bigger loss. Me, or all of China?"

The question caught him completely of guard. His jade orbs widened when he realized how much this question meant to him. Po's mind said the rest of China…but his heart…his heart said Tigress. But he just couldn't find the courage to tell her how she felt. And he couldn't say all of China either, he was trying to make her feel better…not make her feel unwanted.

Po was unaware of the unsettling silence he was creating, the tension in the room only grew between them. "As a guardian of the people I know my answer, but do you know your answer Po?"

The panda leaned forward with sympathy for his friend. "Tigress, I-"

"Po, just keep your thoughts to your self for now." There was yet another long pause between the masters. "Please do not take this the wrong way, but can you leave me be to myself? I just need some time to think things over."

"It's fine, I understand." He smiled once again to show that it was okay. He stood up and offered a hand to Tigress. She needed to get to her bed sometime tonight. The saddened tiger glanced up at his paw and grasped it with her own. When Po tugged on her hand, the panda pulled her a bit harder than what she was expecting. And before she knew it, their arms were wrapped around each other in a warm embrace. The feline dug her head into Po's neck, never wanting to let go. This was exactly what was needed, and they both knew it.

A few minutes passed before the hug was broken. Both of them blushed, and Tigress even smiled a little. The panda gave a small wave. "Good night Tigress."

"Good night Po." Her voice was hushed, but audible. She watched as the Dragon Warrior exited her room and closed the sliding door behind him. She felt much better after that talk, or maybe it was just from the hug. Either way, she didn't feel like being sick anymore.

The master walked towards her bed and laid down facing the closest wall, opposite of the entrance.

Po walked closer to the kitchen, expecting that is where everyone else would be. But when he reached his destination, the only one there was his favorite simian.

The pandas voice was quiet and filled with sadness. "Hey Monkey." He waved to his friend and walked further into the kitchen. "Where is everyone else?"

He replied in the same depressed tone. "We just finished cleaning up from dinner. The others just went off to bed after we finished reading the scroll… it's terrible. She's going to be forced to battle to her death in that coliseum! And there's not even anything we can do about it. The only possible idea that I could think of was to assassinate Dou Ta, but his army would be too large. It would be useless." Monkey put the bowl he was scrubbing on the counter with the rest and then went to grab Tigress's bowl, she hadn't even touched it.

Po reached out a hand to stop his friend. "You can go to bed Monkey, I'll get the rest."

He threw the dish rag on the counter. "Thanks buddy." He was on his way out the door before he remembered something. "One more thing Po, we decided to have you ask Tigress about what to do with Shifu tomorrow." How could the Dragon Warrior have forgotten about Shifu?

"Got it, thanks..wait. Why me?"

The simian rolled his eyes. "Po, we're not blind."

"Um… okay. Thanks for telling me."

"Anytime buddy. See you tomorrow. He left the kitchen with Po, whose eyes narrowed on Tigress's bowl. With all the commotion that went on tonight she never even got the chance to eat. He poured the soup back into the pot and placed it above the fire.

It had only been a few minutes after Po had left her room, and she was already feeling so lonely, so confused. Just as this thought crossed her mind her ear twitched again. The feline heard her door open, so she decided to remain still and act like she was sleeping. Then she heard the door close a second later. Only then had she turned over in her bed to see what events had taken place. Nothing seemed to be different, except for a bowl that was sitting next to the entrance of the room. Tigress walked over to the bowl and bent over to pick it up. It was the steaming hot soup that Po had made for dinner. Her stomach rumbled and she realized that she hadn't eaten all day.

Then the tiger saw it. Next to where the bowl was placed she saw a little piece of paper with a note on it. She picked it up, along with the bowl and read it. _Sweet Dreams Tigress_

'He really does care…'

(A.N.) One more thing, when Po read the letter in his head, it was what he was reading to himself. So I did not do the format of the letter correctly on purpose. Please Review!


	6. Chapter 5: Breaking the News

(A.N.) I have no excuse for coming out with this chapter so late. I just got off my schedule and completely forgot about my story. In other words, I was just lazy. As I ask for your forgiveness, and I also ask for you to review. Enjoy!

One more thing: there are many different point of views in this chapter, but I do not indicate when or where the point of view changes. I personally believe it is just a bit more of a challenge to write like this. Try not to get lost!

Chapter 5: Breaking the News

The felines sensitive ears twitched when she heard the loud crash of the morning gong. But she made no effort to get up. The master was just too tired after a sleepless night, and she still had so many questions to be asked. Even though the conversation last night with Po did help a little, a lot actually, she still could not make it out of bed for any reason she could think of other than talking to her thoughtful friend again.

Tigress heard Master Shifu's cane clicking across the floor towards her room. The masters ears twitched again as the grandmaster yelled her name, but she just did not care.

Her muscles tensed as she was waiting to be scolded by her father, but as he reached the entrance the feline heard the voice of the larger panda come to her defense. "Wait Master Shifu!" Tigress lifted her head from the cot and looked in the direction of the door, trying to hear the conversation better.

Shifu replied in a rather condescending tone, "Yes panda?"

"It's just that last night Tigress told me she was going to get up early and go over by the peach tree to meditate…master." The tigers muscles relaxed as a small grin found its way across her face. 'I can always count on Po'

Tigress was about to turn over in her bed to face the wall again, but something caught her attention. After the grandmaster said something about breakfast, she noticed two almost inaudible voices through the thin wall…and the voices belonged to Viper and Po.

"Hey Po?"

"Oh, what?" There was a short pause. "Oh, hey Viper. Sorry, I was just thinking too hard."

"It's fine Po. I was just wondering if you could ask Tigress about… ya know…"

"Yes, of course. I almost forgot. Thanks for reminding me." She turned her head back at the door, a questioning look on her face. 'Ask me about what?'

Before the master could finish her thought her ears picked up on the sound of her door quietly sliding open. Tigress quickly rolled over in her cot and faced her back towards the entrance, in hopes of giving whoever it was the idea that she was sleeping. Then after not hearing anything after a minute her curiosity got the better of her and the feline turned her head to catch a glimpse of what had moved her door.

Po was awaken from his emotionally uncomfortable sleep by the ringing in his ears from Grandmaster Shifu striking the morning gong. As usual it took the Dragon Warrior a minute to get out of his bed and out into the hallway to meet his master. As the panda slid open his door he rubbed his eyes and looked over at the rest of the five, who were already at attention and wide awake for a new day of training. All except Tigress, that is. Her door was understandably still closed.

Their master looked down the hallway at the tired Po before realizing that his daughter was missing from her morning check in. He knew this was extremely unusual for her, but he also knew that there better be a good explanation for her behavior. "Master Tigress!" After a few seconds of dead silence the red panda steadily walked down the hallway with the support of Oogway's cane.

It was easy for just about anyone to tell when Shifu was irritated, and this was one of those times. Po had to think of something, and quick. "Wait Master Shifu!" He took an involuntary step forward and put his hand up to stop him from proceeding.

The grandmaster took his hand off the door and swiveled around to look at his student. "Yes panda?" his voice was a bit more menacing than intended, which made his student felt like he had done something wrong.

Po placed his hands back at is sides, took a step back, and lowered his voice. "It's just that last night Tigress told me she was going to get up early and go over by the peach tree to meditate…master."

"Very well." Shifu accepted his answer and started walking back out the way he came before stopping for a moment. "Mantis, Crane , Monkey, Viper. You will all make breakfast for today. Po made dinner yesterday, and now it is your turn to cook." He then waited for his students to reply before leaving their sleeping quarters.

"Yes master!" The remaining of the five starred straight ahead and attempted wipe the distressed looks off their faces before proceeding to the kitchen. Everyone other than Viper.

The snake slithered towards the panda, who still had not moved. "Hey Po?"

He had been caught up in thought and failed to notice his friend sliding across the floor and was taken off guard. "Oh, what?" He glanced down to look for the source of the voice. "Oh, hey Viper. Sorry, I was just thinking too hard." He shrugged his shoulders.

She withheld a sincere look on her face. "It's fine Po. I was just wondering if you could ask Tigress about… ya know…"

"Yes, of course. I almost forgot. Thanks for reminding me."

"Anytime Po. Well, I'll be in the kitchen with the others, so take as long as you want." She gave her form of a wave with the end of her tail before slithering off to join the rest of the five.

Then the panda diverted his eyes towards the tigers door. 'I hope she's awake, I would feel terrible if I woke her up from what little sleep she had last night. If any sleep at all, actually.' He cautiously approached the felines door and slid it open as silently as possible, but just a crack so he could see if she was awake or not. All he saw was the back of a supposed sleeping beauty under the light shinning in through her window. All Po could think of was how peaceful Tigress looked, but then he noticed something else in the room. It was the bowl he had left for her last night, and it was empty. That brought a small smile the pandas face. Po slid open the door ever so slightly more to grab the bowl.

Then he heard movement in the room and looked up to see Tigress sitting upright on the bed. "Good morning Po," her voice was still lowered with depression like the night before, but their was something odd about it. Usually when somebody wakes up their voice seems a little groggy. Po was at least expecting her to yawn.

The Dragon Warrior picked up the bowl and slid the door open a bit more so he could at least stand there. "Oh! Tigress, I didn't mean to wake you, I'm-"

"Po, it's fine," she held up a paw to stop him from talking over her, "You did not wake me up, I was already awake." Tigress slowly put her arm down as her head sunk lower to stare at the floorboards.

"Couldn't sleep last night, huh?" It was a rather stupid question.

She glanced back up to her friend. "No, no I didn't sleep at all. How about you?"

Po shrugged, "Ya, I guess I slept _okay_. Not like I slept any better than everyone else."

"I thought as much." There was once again a long silence between them. "Did you want to ask me something? I heard you and Viper talking outside my room."

"Yes… ya I did. But just give me a minute, I am going to put your bowl back in the kitchen." He closed the door and walked towards the kitchen and put the bowl on the counter. Then he noticed a piece of papyrus wrapped around the end of one of the chopsticks.

Po took the small sheet off of the eating utensil and slid the bowl down the counter next to the sink. "Do you guys mind washing this?"

"We got it Po," Crane replied.

"Thanks." Po glanced back at the object that was now in his hand. The panda unraveled it and saw what it was. It was only the note that he gave to Tigress the night before, but just to make sure, he flipped it around to see if there was anything on the other side. If nothing was new about it, then what would be the point of being so delicate with it? It was then the panda saw what was written in the back, in Tigress's handwriting. _Thank You _That was all it said. And Po didn't know why, but those two words caused him to feel just a little warmer inside.

Mantis was in the middle of helping with the cooking when he saw Po just starring at his hand. "Hey Po, what ya got there?"

"Oh it's nothing." Po was a terrible liar and he knew it, so he pocketed the note and fast walked out of the kitchen back to Tigress's room. Po did not really feel like answering any personal questions to anyone other than the tiger, especially Mantis.

When he reached his friends room the panda stood at her door and took a second to collect his breath, and his courage. Po slid open the door only to see Tigress, who was still sitting on her bed, starring at the floor. He walked further into the room and closed the door behind him. As he opened his mouth to ask her the question, he was stopped by Tigress.

The curiosity was eating away at her brain. 'What did the want to ask me? It obviously is about yesterday, but what is it _specifically_?' She watched as her friend walked into her room. 'Might as well ask.' She glanced up with a sincere look in his eyes. "Pardon me for eavesdropping, but I heard you and Viper talking… and I was just wondering what it was that you wanted to ask me?"

"I was just about to ask you that, actually." He gestured towards the cot. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"No, not at all." The feline slid over to one side of the bed to make room for Po.

When he sat the bed creaked a little and slightly tilted towards one side. "Um…sorry…" This received a small smirk from Tigress.

Po joined Tigress in looking at the floor. "Well, the rest of the five have already read the letter, and they know what's going on. But the only person that doesn't know is-"

"Shifu... I understand what you are asking." She looked back up at her friend.

Po also looked up in surprise. "You do?"

"I have no idea how to tell him either Po. I just don't know what to do…" The miserable feline looked back down at her feet.

The panda placed a hand on her shoulder, attracting the attention of the tiger. "Tigress, I just want you to know that this is completely your decision. And that I, along with the rest of the Furious Five, are always going to be here for you."

At that, she lightly leaned against the fluffy panda, and an arm was placed around her back. "Thank you Po. That means a lot to me." The small conversation was followed by a minute or two of pure silence. "We got the letter yesterday, on the sixteenth, and we have to arrive at Mao Den on the twenty-first. Since the city is not too far away it will take about a day and a half of travel to get there. That gives us only today and tomorrow to confront Shifu." She pushed herself off Po and stood up. "And the sooner the better."

Po followed her actions. "So you just want to go up to him and tell him?"

"Something like that…but…I would appreciate your help."

"I'd love to, but what do you need me for?"

"I do not know how I could do this by myself, and I consider you to be one of the closest friends I have ever had. I…I would like you for support, Po."

The panda pulled her into an unexpected hug, and said something that truly made her think that everything is going to be okay. "As long as I have anything to do with it, I will _never _leave your side." With that the two masters left off for the kitchen, where they had last seen the dreaded scroll.

When they reached the source of the smell from the cooking, Po and Tigress were greeted by the rest of the five. But with her mind concentrated on the task to come, she had completely blocked them out. The feline silently walked into the kitchen and took the silk bag, along with all of its contents intact. Most of the five realized what she was going to do, and decided they'd rather not bother her. The two silently walked out of the kitchen and approached where they would assume Shifu to be at this time of day.

They reached the door to Sacred Hall of Warriors, and stopped. Tigress allowed herself to take in a deep breath. "You ready?"

The feline glanced down at the bag in her hand, and then back at the door ahead of her… and then at Po. "As ready as I'll ever be." Before swinging the door open, Tigress took hold of Po's hand. A little tightly in his opinion, but it was nothing to worry about.

As the doors swung open, Tigress pulled them closer together to conceal their hand-holding from her father. Then they took their first courageous step forward.

Grandmaster Shifu was meditating in the Sacred Hall of Warriors, in front of the Moon Pool. His mind was clear, and if any thoughts did make it into his head, they were happy. His students had taken down a powerful tyrant, no new evil threatened China, and his daughter was taking a great leap in her life. She was becoming more open, more social, and a bit more friendly. Overall, she was becoming a bit less hardcore, and a bit more of a happy individual. It also would not hurt to recognize that she was taking a bit of a liking fro the Dragon Warrior. His ear twitched as he heard the creaking of a door, and the thump of soft footsteps. He veered his attention to his left as the red panda observed Po and Tigress walking towards him. They were pressed together and walking in an awkward fashion, and as he read their faces the old master realized that something was dreadfully wrong. Then his attention was averted to the white and gold silk bag in the tigers grasp.

He stood up with the help of his cane and glared at the two with a look of concern. "Students, what is all the distress from?" The two masters walked up to their teacher and stopped merely foot away. They still did not leave each others side. Then Tigress's mouth opened as if to say something, but then closed it. The hardcore master just could not bring herself to tell him directly, so she did the next best thing. She took a deep sigh before kneeling down and giving her master the parcel they received only a day prior.

Her father took the bag with his free hand and placed his cane on the floor before unwinding the string that kept the contents inside. As he did so, Po understood that this was a family moment and placed his paw on Tigress's shoulder, grabbing her attention. Their eyes locked gazes for a brief moment, then Po broke the stare by turning around and leaving the two alone. Tigress could only watch in anguish as the one that had the ability to comfort her in her time of need left during her moment of weakness. But she fully understood why he left, and forgave him for it. At this moment, it was solely a family matter.

The feline took a seat one the small steps next to her father, who had the same horrified look on his face as all the others. "What could this have to do with Shen? He is only part of our past now. Is this some kind of joke?" He glanced up at Tigress with a questioning look written across his face.

Her voice was soft and cheerless. "This is no joke master. Have you heard about the attack on the east coast? Did you even see what was inside?"

Shifu had completely forgotten about the existence of Po, and what was hidden in the cloth. "What attack? Why was I not informed!"

"Zeng spoke of this with me yesterday, before our meal. There is nothing we can do, and all the damaged cities are being aided."

Her father failed to even read the rest of the letter, and he was already getting sidetracked. "Well I guess that is good news. And what was that about something being inside something?"

Tigress's voice was slowly rising due to her frustration with her master. "_Father! _Have you even read the rest of it?"

"Well no, I suppose not. But I don't see how the attack is not the subject." He glanced back down at the scroll. The feline took a seat on the small steps next the grandmaster. She gazed at her fathers changing expression. From confused to horrified, she saw it all.

Shifu finished reading and immediately dropped the scroll and went for the silk bag. The old master could not believe what he had just read, he needed this so call proof. The red panda took Shen's dagger out of the bag and examined it. A full minute passed before he realized what it was. The only time he had actually seen it was when the peacock attacked Po with the blade before his weapon crushed him.

Shifu's eyes widened with understanding, then all that could be heard was the loud echoing noise of the dagger fell smashing into ground. He looked back at his daughter, unsure what to say.

The master looked back down at the floor and spoke quietly. "I could not think of a better way to tell you, and it seemed better if you found out today. "

Still no words came from her father, there was just a long, awkward silence between the two. Tigress was just about to turn and see if her master was even still there, but her actions were interrupted. As she turned in her seat she was met by a loving embrace from the one she loved most. The feline happily returned the hug to her father.

A small single tear fell from Master Shifu's eye as he reflected on their past, their present…and their future, "Tigress, we will make it through this no matter what, please do not worry." A comment like this once again brought a small thought of happiness in the back of her head.

That was the second time she had been told something like that for this matter. And it still managed to make her feel a little bit better. But the bitter truth was stuck in her mind. Saying these things could not just make them happen. There is no denying the inevitable. All she had built up throughout her lifetime, would soon be demolished.


	7. Chapter 6: So Little Time

(A.N.) I once again apologize for the late update. Being a fifteen year old gamer, I got caught up in Minecraft on the Xbox. So… ya. I hope this chapter is less confusing than the last one, and please leave a review! I know I'm a new author and everything, but at least more than one review per chapter would be nice. (Shout out to crazycakes!) I hope you take pleasure in reading the chapter, I plan to soon get back on a regular update schedule. Enjoy!

Chapter 6: So Little Time

The rest of that day mainly consisted of silence throughout the Jade Palace. The only ones that made any sort of noise were just Master Shifu and Tigress. For the past few hours they have been discussing any way possible to avoid Mao Den City. But to both of their regret, neither of the masters could see how the life of one could weigh more than the rest of China. Even though she was part of the furious five, and in Shifu's eyes, his only daughter. Other than the father to daughter conversation, not much dialogue occurred between anybody until later that night.

Tigress sat in her meditating position, cross legged with paws on her knees. She watched as the sun began to set, casting a pink ray of light over the distant clouds. Realizing that after tonight, the master only had one more day at the Jade Palace before they would leave for the city. Then it would be the last time her home would ever cross her sight.

The feline sat there and took a long moment to reflect on her life, and questioned if she had liked how it turned out. First there was the Bao Gu Orphanage, which was not necessarily a high point in her life. Then there was her adoption from Master Shifu, along with arrival at the Jade Palace. He was not always the best father figure, but the cub was still overjoyed to be there. After that came the arrival of the rest of what now is the Furious Five, and some of the closest people she ever had to a friend. Much later on, Po fell into her life, engulfed with a ball of fire. Then, out of the blue, was proclaimed the Dragon Warrior. That one fateful day when she met her soon to be best friend, was the start of some of the most tragic couple of weeks she had ever endured. Everything that she had trained for throughout her entire life had just been destroyed by some random panda. But Tigress put it behind her after Po showed his worth through the victory over Tai Lung. But yet again, another crazed villain threatened China. Lord Shen. During that mission they without a doubt grew closer together, and it was rather obvious. Overall, Tigress had liked she life she lived out. Her only regret was having this day come so soon. Well, that is not her only regret. Most of them had to do with her friends and her father. But most of all, Po. The feline knew that she had feelings for the panda, but she did not know if he felt the same way about her. And either way she just couldn't bring herself to tell him about it. If he did have feeling for her, and she ended up telling him, she would just drop out of his life forever. He would just be left alone and heartbroken. If he did not have feelings for her, the master just could not take being rejected by another person in her life. Tigress was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

At that moment her sensitive ears twitched as she picked up on heavy footsteps approaching from behind her. She stayed in her position and never even looked back. "Good evening Po."

"Hey Tigress." He walked up and sat down next to her on the grass before starring at the clouds with the feline. "How's it going?"

"Honestly, I have been better." She briefly glanced at her friend before looking back at the sunset.

Po couldn't help but notice that she almost got a smile out of her remark. "I guess I can believe that. If you don't mind me asking, what happened between you and Shifu? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"It's an acceptable question, no worries." Tigress allowed herself a short moment of silence to gather her thoughts. Then she turned and looked directly at the panda, and he returned the gesture. "What happened was what had been most likely expected by you and the rest. We had a long "family moment," if you will, and then began to discuss other matters having to do with the subject." Tigress was trying a bit too hard to keep up her professional appearance in front of her friend.

"Like what?" he replied, then quickly added, "If you don't mind, of course."

The master drew her attention back to the fading light before responding. "We discussed how to announce the news to the villagers, when we should depart, and what will be done…" her saddened tone slowly lowered to a hushed voice and her ears flattened against her skull. "…after this incident had taken place."

"You don't need to tell me anymore Tigress, it's fine." He gave the master a small, comforting smile.

She glanced back at Po and returned his gesture with a forced smile in attempt to show how this would all be okay. But she couldn't even fool herself. "Once again Po, no worries. What we agreed on was that we will leave two days time, the villagers would be told after you return, and there will be a… _service_ held at the Jade Palace."

There was a moment of silence for the Dragon Warrior to let all the information sink in. "Well thanks for telling me, I guess." The reply was followed by another small moment of silence as the two masters watched the sun set behind the mountains. Po cherished many moments that he spent with Tigress, but this was one of the best. It was just the two of them, watching the sun set in complete silence. Which was soon broken, "So, what are you doing out here so late?"

The tiger glanced back into the pandas jade eyes. "I was just thinking Po, just thinking."

"I suppose I don't need to ask about what."

"I think everyone knows what's on my mind at the moment."

"You're dealing with some pretty serious stuff, Tigress." Po gave her another comforting smile.

"Quite." There was yet another long period of silence as the warriors starred up at the sky, gazing at the newly visible stars.

The panda looked at his friend and spoke with a meaningful tone. "Tigress?"

"Yes Po?" They both found themselves gazing into each others eyes.

"Are you scared?" The feline was taken off guard by his question, she honestly was not quite sure how to answer him.

Awkward silence grew between them, and Po was becoming a bit worried. "Tigress? Ya there?" He waved his paw in front of her eyes.

Her head shot back from surprise, Tigress had completely lost concentration. "Yes, uh… sorry. I just got caught up in my thoughts."

"No explanation needed, just making sure you're still there."

"Of course. And to answer your question, I am honestly a bit frightened. Just a little more than Tai Lung's return, and the mission in Gong Men." Tigress was only trying to hide the truth from her comrade, but Po had a gift of knowing people all too well. She was terrified.

"Tigress, I know that you're like, the most hardcore warrior in the history if China, but how can you only be that scared? Knowing you, I bet you weren't even that scared during those mission things. I mean, when I was about to face Tai Lung, I was completely freaking out! You were probably just playing it cool as always. And for fighting Shen, I was still frightened. Even after I found inner peace. But I can't really say much for you on that mission, I kinda wasn't there for some of it." The feline unwillingly remembered the incident at the factory. When Po had gotten supposedly killed by the cannon, Tigress's life felt like it had been turned upside down. When she witnessed him get hit she lost all will to fight and just slumped to the floor. The kung fu master had just _let_ Shen's guards take her away to the prison. Then before their rescue, they were about to be burned at the stake on the demonic peacocks ship. Tigress had never been more scarred in her life, not until that letter wandered into the palace. "I'm getting off track, the point is that it is okay to be downright petrified for once in your life. Everyone has their moment, and you do not have to be too proud to admit it. Besides, no matter what, you can always count on us to be there for you."

"Who's us?" She cocked her head and glared at Po in confusion.

"The Furious Five, Shifu, and me. We will never leave your side, we're practically your family." Tigress was rather shocked to just hear herself been called part of their family. She had always looked at them as her peers, but never her family. Not including Shifu, obviously.

The tigers ember irises widened as she starred directly into the pandas eyes. "Do you really mean that?" Her voice was just above inaudible, but it made its way across Po's ears with true meaning.

He acted rather surprised to hear this. Did Tigress really think that Shifu was her only family? Po had always considered her to be one of his closest friends, even though she seemed so distant. "Why not? We already live under the same roof, why wou-" The panda was cut off by his friend. Tigress had suddenly leaped at the panda and wrapped her arms around him, catching Po completely by surprise. The Dragon Warrior instinctively put his hands up in defense, but immediately eased them around the felines back after realizing what she was doing.

"Po… I'm so scarred, but I just don't know how to react in front of everybody else. I just don't want them to see me like this." She buried her face into his chest, all the while holding back tears. But her voice began to quiver, and the master could not hold back forever. "I just don't want them to see me so weak and pathetic, and I feel that sometimes you can be the only one I can trust."

"Tigress," he lightly stroked her back for comfort, "having emotions should never make anyone think any different of you. Nor will it. I think of you of an amazing kung fu master, and an awesome friend. And acting a little different than usual will by no means ever change that."

Tigress took her head off his chest and looked back up at him with a small grin on her lips. "Can you promise me that? Can you promise that nothing I do will ever make you think differently about me?"

Po returned the gesture by gazing right back into her gold and red orbs. "Easily." The caring panda put her cheek in his palm, and wiped a running tear off her fur. "In my eyes, you will always be the bravest, most fearless, unbeatable warrior, in all of China. Not to mention a fantastic friend. No matter what happens, that is how I will always think of you."

Tigress accepted his complement with a moment of delightful silence. The two warriors only sat there for few precious minutes and gazed up at the stars. The feline repositioned her head into a more comfortable position on the pandas shoulder.

"What you just said means more to me than you think, Po. In all my years of training and hard work, nobody has ever said anything like that to me before. Not even one of the other five."

Po looked down at Tigress in surprise, but she kept her gaze locked on the starry night. "What about Shifu? Surely he must have said something like that sometime in your life. After all, he _is_ your father. He's kind of supposed to do stuff like that."

This time she did return the pandas gaze. "That's what I used to think too, but other than a rare, small congratulations, he has never actually said anything as meaningful as you have. And I've only known you for a short time in my life compared to my father."

"No offense or anything, but even though Shifu's a good teacher, I do not find him to be the best example for a dad."

"As much as I hate to say it, you're right." Their small conversation was followed by a long silence that consisted of more stargazing.

Then Po asked a question completely out of the blue. "As much as I hate to bring back up the subject, I feel like I have to ask you this."

Tigress glanced back at her friend, with a fading smile at the mention of "the subject." "What is it that you need to ask?"

Po starred right at the tiger with a meaningful look in his features. "I hate to ask this, I really do. But is there anything you would want to do before…before we leave for Mao Den?"

Tigress returned her gaze to the sky and gave her self a moment to ponder the pandas question. She still found it very hard to comprehend the fact that in a few days time she would be in a coffin, but she temporarily pushed through those emotional barriers to really think about it. "I have one day of freedom left, and I can't think of anything that I would want to do. It is almost unbelievable. So little has been done with my life besides devoting it to protecting China. There is so much I have not done, and I just can not think of anything that I would want to do. Every day I lead the same dull life when we are not out on a mission. All I do is stay inside the Jade Palace walls!" Tigress leaned forward and placed her forehead in her palm out of a mixture of anger and sadness.

Po put his paw on her shoulder and slowly drew her closer to his body. "Well… then what are some of the favorite things about your every day life in the palace?"

They both went back to starring back up at the sky. "I guess that would mostly consist of the time I spend with you and the others. To be honest I am getting a little sick of the constant training."

"Aren't we all?" Tigress smiled a little bit. Even the hardcore master needed a break, right?

Po's face briefly lit up with excitement. "If you like spending time with us, how about we all take a day off tomorrow and do stuff together?"

"I like the idea, but what would we do? The word stuff is not that descriptive, Po."

"We'll figure it out when we get there. After all, we do live in the Valley of Peace. There has to be _something _to do here besides train." Po was right, they did happen to live in a somewhat large city.

"We can just think of something tomorrow, there is no need to be concerned about that now. Lets just concern ourselves with the present, not the future," Tigress moved closer to her friend and lightly hugged his arm before once again tilting her head back.

Po just watched the feline for a moment, after a while he realized that he was starring at the master for a bit too long. Tigress saw him out of the corner of her eye and returned the cheerful glare, accompanied by a playful smile. That was when the panda realized what he was doing, and he quickly diverted his attention back towards the sky. Her smile only grew wider when she saw this.

There was a long period of time when they both continued to gaze up at the stars, and occasionally stole glances at one another. Then a thought hit Tigress. She glanced up at the panda with worry, the master was already looking forward to her day off. "Po, what if Shifu refuses to give us the day off?"

He returned his friends stare and simply replied, "Don't worry over him, I'll ask Shifu about it tomorrow. Just plan in sleeping in and having fun all day."

Tigress leaned back onto the pandas shoulder. "Thank you, for everything."

"My pleasure Tigress." They continued to gaze at the sky in each others comfort for what seemed like hours. And both masters cherished every moment of it. Further into the night, they laid down in the grass to get a better view of the night sky through the branches of the peach tree. Tigress was laying on her side, leaning on Po. With one hand on his chest, and her head lying next to the pandas on his shoulder.

Tigress was the first to fall asleep. Po only noticed this when she started softly purring on his arm. He glanced at her with surprise only to find the feline with her eyes closed. Po would have fallen asleep sooner, but he was far too ecstatic. Not only was he under the stars with his favorite tiger, but he had also managed to make her purr. Po had not even known that she was capable of such happiness, but apparently she was. And he liked seeing Tigress so incredibly, happy. Especially during a time like this.

Then, after a while the Dragon Warrior found himself rather drowsy. Po was becoming sleepy, and before he knew it, he was out. Po and Tigress had fallen asleep under the stars together, which was more than either of them could have ever asked for.

Maybe only fifteen minutes later, a certain snake slid out into the grass, calling their names. "Tigress, Po! Are you there? Hello?" Viper further slithered into the courtyard before seeing the two curled up next to each other under the peach tree. It took her a minute to realize who or what that was, but when she did the snake grew a wide smile, and let out a loud "awwwe," as if she was watching a cub taking his first steps. Then Viper quickly covered her mouth with her tail. Why would she wasn't to wake such a cute couple?

Viper sat there starring with joy at her friends for a brief moment. Eventually she slid her way back to the kitchen to talk to the others with glee. She was first greeted by Monkey. "Did you find them? Cus I'm getting seriously hungry here. I don't think I can wait for them much longer." He rubbed a hand over his belly and eyed the freshly cooked food they managed to make without the help of the head chef.

"I found them, don't worry." She slithered her way up a chair to get eye level with everyone else. Including Mantis, who was on Monkey's shoulder.

"Well then where are they? I hate to be pushy but I haven't eaten all day," Crane gently replied.

Viper leaned in closer to the three and dropped her voice down to a whisper. Even though it was completely pointless. "I saw them sleeping together under the peach tree!" It was impossible to contain her excitement within her voice.

"Wait! You mean they wer-"

"No mantis! That is not what I meant! All I saw, was Po and Tigress, under the peach tree, sleeping _next _to each other," she replied, in a rather annoyed tone. "Lets just leave them alone for the night, we can just eat without them for once." Then her tone grew extremely serious. "And _nobody,_" she eyed Mantis, "will bring this up tomorrow. What happened is their business, and not ours. Got it?" Viper received a series of nods from the three. A smile found its way back into her features. "Great. Now, lets eat!"

The other guys could only think about how scary she could be sometimes.


End file.
